Call this the better-late-than-never trip. The Kings dropped the first three games, losing to Boston, Washington and Florida and rallied to beat Tampa Bay and Columbus. A few takeaways from Monday night’s game in Columbus as they pulled within three points of a wild-card playoff spot.

A suspected case of food poisoning had Regehr down … but not out. He said the illness came on around 3 a.m. and he didn’t get much rest, and this was not even a couple of days after Regehr played a season-high 29 minutes in the victory at Tampa.

Of course, he played. The Kings were unable to bring up a player from their minor-league affiliate in Manchester, N.H., because of the snowstorms hitting the East Coast.

Regehr logged nearly 24 minutes of ice time, was a minus-three and had one assist. Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said that Regehr “gutted it” out. High praise from the man.

Dwight King fitting in well on the Carter line

King scored his first goal since he had two against Nashville on Jan. 3, set up Tyler Toffoli to make it 2-1 and put forth a determined effort from the start. Sutter said: “I thought the line was really good. Jeff and Tyler and Kinger were our best forwards by a long shot.”

The loss to the Panthers, the third-period collapse, may have been the cold reality the Kings needed. But Dwight King analyzed it beyond just that game.

“Obviously it was a month’s worth of mediocre hockey that got us into the position,” King said. “As far as that game goes, I thought we actually played a decent game and those mistakes cost you in this league. I like the mindset to get back on it and keep working the last two games…. We need to go home and continue that.”